Les Brasseries Sporting Day: 10 years already and counting…

It is on record that Cameroon’s golden generation of footballers; those who ensured that the country won at least, three African Nations Cups in rapid succession were an off-shoot of the social responsibility component of Les Brasseries du Cameroun.

This premier brewing company in Cameroon did not only moot, but effectively developed the concept of catching budding football talents and grooming them to international stardom. This was achieved through the setting up of training institutions, which, today, have been replicated and commercialised by copy-cats, concerned more with pecuniary profit than the collective social interest.

As it stands, Cameroon’s best ever national team was made up of trainees from the Les Brasseries du Cameroun Football School. Scores of them were to later on take the country to the top echelon of world soccer playing nations. That was then.

Some 10 years ago, the brewing company went beyond just catering for the interests of budding footballers. Through their constant concern for the teeming communities in which Les Brasseries du Cameroun numerous products are either produced or consumed and in a bid to ensure that all those with whom the company interacts stay in fine fettle at all times, the brewers introduced another sporting line.

This one cuts across age, class and generation. It seeks, primarily, as Gustave Zoa, Southwest Regional Director of the company told the public recently, to emphasise that the mind stays healthy in a body that is equally healthy.It is aimed at beating off stress at the work place. Hence, the once in a year sporting jamboree that involves both Les Brasseries du Cameroun employees and interested members of the public.

And it is anchored on one of the company’s best known products, the TANGUI mineral water, best known as the most reliable thirst quencher and ultimate refresher for sporting men and women across the board.

The Southwest sporting event for this year started as usual at the Mile Two Round-About, in the outskirts of Limbe. It involved hundreds of participants, among them local administrators, sporting instructors and medical personnel walking past Cite Sic, Middle Farms, Limbe City Council, Half Mile, Church Street, New Town, and Manga Bridge to Down Beach.

Between relaxation and body stretches, the sporting crowd engaged in distractions like draughts, ludo, tug of war, sack races, table tennis and beach soccer. Of course, there was enough banter to radiate friendliness and put everyone else at ease with everyone.

Elsewhere, in Bafoussam, capital of the West Region, the General Manager, Francis Batista, convinced Governor Augustine Fonka Awa to bring out his team of Regional administrators for this all important exercise. They walked, stretched out, intermittently refreshing with TANGUI mineral water.

At the level of Douala, where Les Brasseries du Cameroun is headquartered, the Deputy General Manager, Guillaume Sarra, and other top company brass, led the exercises. The same itinerary was replicated in all the major townships of all the Regions. All of this, in a bid to drive home the point that a combination of a healthy mind and body makes for higher and effective productivity in every facet of the nation’s economy.